Newport Beach City Council backs local school district on control over masks, vaccinations
As classes came back in session this Monday, the Newport Beach City Council approved a resolution calling for greater local control in the school district over mask and vaccine choices on campuses.
The resolution was brought to the council’s agenda by Councilman Noah Blom, who said it was prompted by ongoing discussions he’s had with residents. Blom said he felt it would have been a “dereliction of [our] duty if we just don’t respond if we say it’s out of our hands. It’s in the school board. It’s in the state.”
“I get that. We all know how laws trickle down. But if we don’t speak up then, we’re just compliant,” said Blom.
In July, the state implemented a requirement across all California public schools for students to wear masks at the start of the school year though officials have said that guidance may change depending on new pandemic information and data compiled in the coming months.
On Monday, California Department of Public Health director Tomás Aragón issued a letter that states failure by public school districts to enforce the mask requirement carries legal, financial and other risks.
“To be clear: failure to enforce the mask requirement breaches not only a legal duty, but also the first and foremost duty of every school leader — to protect students,” wrote Aragón.
Parents in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District hotly contested the issue in a recent board meeting, where at least one parent compared forced mask-wearing to child abuse. Many called for the district to move toward mask choice while others object to such a move, fearful that going without masks could mean greater transmission of the Delta variant of the coronavirus among students.
Orange County Health Care Agency metrics report that there have been at least 479 cases in children in Newport Beach, but that there have been more than 30,000 cases countywide. The vast majority of those cases have been in teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18.
Additionally, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard as of Wednesday, there were eight cases of the virus districtwide.
Board members say wearing masks indoors will help ensure schools can stay open for full-day instruction in 2021-22. But parents opposed to facial coverings are digging in.
The council’s resolution contends that the mask requirements do not acknowledge any conditions at the local level, such as case rates, vaccination rates, hospitalization rates or any site-specific improvements and that the state mandate chafes against the city’s adopted legislative platform which supports local control.
Speakers Tuesday night for nearly two hours overwhelmingly spoke in favor of the resolution to repeated applause, many praising the council for its leadership. Council members thanked residents for attending the meeting and for speaking up, invoking references to the public’s constitutional right to petition.
“I’m really looking forward to the next couple of weeks when we let Sacramento know how we feel about our children,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kevin Muldoon. “Parental rights are a natural right. They are given to you by God. No [child] is a ward of the state. No school child, no children belongs to the state. They belong to you.”
“For me, it doesn’t matter which side you fall on. I am supporting this resolution because these are your children,” said Muldoon.
Councilwoman Joy Brenner cast the lone dissenting vote, saying that she felt taking a position would further polarize the community and that she does not feel the issue was within the council’s “lane.”
“I have no doubt how much all of the people here tonight love their children and how much the people on the other side that we got a lot of emails from love their children, so it’s not an easy decision one way or the other,” said Brenner, additionally voicing her support for local control. “But, it’s not something that I feel like I should be voting on tonight and taking a position.”
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
